Claude Julien couldn’t have been blamed if he wanted to change his entire team after the first period of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final last night. It might have been the most wretched 20 minutes of hockey the Bruins have played in this postseason. It was right there, in fact, with the worst periods all season.

Outshot 19-4 in the period, utterly dominated in nearly every phase of play, the Bruins trailed the Blackhawks just 1-0 — only because of the typically rock-solid play of goalie Tuukka Rask.

Julien made one significant adjustment to start the second — and, boy, did it work splendidly. The move keyed the B’s remarkable midgame turnaround and eventual 2-1 overtime victory that tied the series going into tomorrow night’s Game 3 at the Garden.

The B’s coach juggled his lines and came up with a new trio of Daniel Paille, Tyler Seguin and Chris Kelly. Those guys basically proceeded to win the game — as Kelly scored late in the second to knot the score, and Paille pumped the winner past goalie Corey Crawford 13:48 into sudden death.

The emotion for the hero of the night?

“Just relief,” said Paille. “Relief that the game was over and we’re able to go home 1-1.”

Few would have predicted a happy ending for the Bruins given the way the ’Hawks skated circles around them in Period 1. Staggering into the dressing room, the B’s knew that just could not continue.

“I think we just made each other accountable,” said Paille. “We were definitely disappointed with that first period. We knew we had to be better.

“They came out with a lot of speed in that first period. We wanted to somehow change that. Playing physical is a big part of our game when we’ve been successful. That was huge for us (last night), and we started to pick up the pace. We came out better in the second period.

“I think everyone realized we got outshot and we got outskated. Going into the second period, we wanted to put pucks on the net and continue to play physical. We were able to establish our system the last two periods and into overtime. We were able to battle back.”

Leading the way on many, many shifts were the guys on the newly formed line. Seguin was skating like crazy and competing hard. Kelly and Paille, too, were helping the B’s carry the play on many shifts.

“I think we just stopped thinking and started playing,” said Paille. “We realized we had to help the team. That goes a long way when you stop thinking and just play with your natural ability.

“Tyler looked like he was on a mission. He realized he had to play big for us and he did. He was able to be a huge contributor.”

Kelly’s game-tying score started with a strong pinch down the right wall by defenseman Andrew Ference, who overwhelmed Chicago star Patrick Sharp to keep a puck deep. Seguin went hard behind the ’Hawks cage against defenseman Michal Rozsival, keeping the puck loose.